Winners and Losers
In a Japan Bank Bailout

By

David Roche

Updated Feb. 14, 2002 11:59 p.m. ET

U.S. President George W. Bush endorsed Japan's planned structural reforms yesterday, despite deep lingering doubts about how to accomplish those reforms without bankrupting Japan's banks, or its corporations, or both.

But it's not just Japan's banks and their corporate clients that are going bust. The state is also in a perilous financial position, with gross government debt now standing at just under 140% of gross domestic product....